Sportventures Insider: The Process

Happy Birthday to me! I won't tell you how old I am, but instead, I figured I'd look into discussing what goes into making these posts today. It's something I've alluded to quite a bit, but I figure it'd be fun to show the people the amount of work that goes into this hobby of mine.

STEP 1: Choosing the event

As you might expect, this involves looking at schedules and finding dates and times for their games. While I'd love to go to as many things as I could, there are a few factors I have to consider:

1. Time. A lot of these stadiums are in places with...varying reputations, so I try to make sure that I'm not somehwere I'd rather not be late at night. Also, with so many events on the calendar, you have to make sure that you don't end up creating conflicts. For example, before "settling" on this past weekend's Nets game, I considered going to Sacred Heart before moving that trip up to the end of 2025, as they had a game at the EXACT SAME TIME as the Nets game. In addition, I need to make time for other things (i.e. friends and family), so I can't exactly be traveling around to sports venues every weekend.

2. Distance. I feel like you have to consider time driving vs. time spent at an event: for example, if it takes you an hour and a half to travel to an event you spend three hours at, then you've more or less "broken even" on time (three hours driving, three hours entertainment). Therefore, pretty much anything more than two hours gets dicey for me, as it's more time driving and less time at the event, and I don't believe that's super "worth it" - though there may be some exceptions.

For me, I like to arrive early so that I can get good parking, check out team stores, and walk around the stadium/arena, so that does shift things a bit as it usually adds an hour to the "event" side of the equation (especially in regards to certain trips I'm considering which involve 2+ hours driving). In addition, I'm looking into a few overnight trips in the near future (i.e. trips where I'll be staying somewhere nearby instead of going home).

STEP 2: Research

Once I find a game that I think works for me, I start writing! In fact, this is a large reason why I'm able to have these posts out the day after the game: about 75% of the work is done BEFORE the event even starts¹.

Generally, I don't want to get TOO deep into writing about history: that information is available in other places (though yesterday's Nets post may be a counter argument to that idea). However, I feel like I should provide a bit of context for what you're about to read, so I do try to have a team history section and, if applicable, an arena history section. Sometimes, I do a little bit about the city the team is based in, but unfortunately, a lot of that has, for better or worse, boiled down to "this place was fine back in the day but now it's kinda sketchy" (because those are the types of places that view sports as a potential economic boost).

Like a lot of other millennials, my primary source for information is Wikipedia. Y'see kids, before we could just ask AI chatbots to answer questions for us, we had to do research ourselves, and as someone who likes diving into things, I still do my own research. Wikipedia was (and still is) a major source of information that serves as a backbone for a lot of these posts - even if it is prone to the occasional vandal/wannabe comedian.

Once the "groundwork" for a post is done, I need to start thinking about the event itself, which means...

STEP 3: Tickets

I realize that it SEEMS unusual to work on a post BEFORE buying tickets, but the thing is that most of the time, I start my posts before I even know what ticket prices are - and I can get away with it. Since MOST of the posts on this blog have actually been about lower league teams, tickets aren't actually that difficult to come by (or not even a thing in the case of the Cape Cod Baseball League). Usually, I can find something for a decent price a few days to a week before the game; this also helps avoid "wasting" money if I end up having to back out of an event last minute due to something coming up (which happens more often than I'd like in the "blog era"). In fact, there's been a few times where I've bought tickets at the venue immediately before the game; more often than not, this actually costs LESS than buying online (especially when Ticketmaster is involved). I actually DON'T typically like doing this, however, as it usually means I have less control over where I sit (as someone who doesn't like having to walk through seats).

There are some times that I do have to commit to buying tickets early as well. For example, certain things - such as the strength of the opponent/whether or not they're in conference (for NCAA games) - can affect ticket prices. Also, spoiler alert: I'm going to see quite a bit of Banana Ball this year, and due to the way in which I am able to get those notoriously hard-to-get tickets, I have to buy those MONTHS in advance.

STEP 4: The event itself

It's kinda weird that this is the "shortest" part of these posts, but it's true: I probably spend the LEAST amount of time at the MOST important part of these posts.

Like I said earlier, I'm one of those people who likes to arrive when the doors open, so I can walk around, see the entire stadium/arena, and (perhaps most importantly) see what's going on in terms of merchandise and concessions. Of course, this is also where I learn more about the building to write about later. I've considered using my Notes app to actually write down thoughts (as the nature of how I make these posts precludes me from editing them in the arena), but that has happened VERY rarely - the only time I can recall writing things to include on the blog was a mention of getting stuck on a train...

Of course, since half of going to a game is ACTUALLY GETTING THERE, that is another thing I tend to include in my writings. As of this point, I 've only made two overnight trips SPECIFICALLY for games (both of them to Boston - but I have other reasons for heading up there); however, I can guarantee that this year will feature a game I have to fly to - hopefully (I already have a ticket for it, which should be a hint as to what it is).

It is somewhat ironic that the outcome of the game itself is the LEAST important part of posts here, but I figure that I really want to try and focus on the venue. Besides, if you want to know what happened, that information is readily available in other places online (though if anything super notable comes up, I may mention it).

One thing that doesn't usually find its way into these posts: clothing. I've alluded to it in places on this blog, but I've been collecting sports jerseys for a while now. Typically, I try to wear the jersey of the home team (or something relevant to them if I don't have/purchase their jersey at the game), but there are a few cases where I don't do this (one of which is actually coming up in a few weeks).

STEP 5: Publishing

After the game ends, I try and apply the finishing touches to my writing: the information about the arena (and my impressions of it), plus any things related to the game I think are important.

One thing I've had issues with blogs I've done in the past: self-censoring. A lot of times, I work on a post only to scrap it because I feel like I'm just ranting and/or rambling too much, so very little actually gets posted. Thankfully, I don't have that problem here, as this is just me summarizing what a building looks like/what I think of it.

I think I've mentioned it somewhere, but this site is "self-published" - I'm using stuff I more or less "made" myself (as opposed to using a blogging platform like Substack, Medium, or WordPress). I don't want to get into how this is set up on that end as it's probably more technical than most readers would understand, but it does mean that there's a bit more work on my end than simply "typing and uploading" (though I find it does help me when I have to do all of my own formatting).

One thing I am kinda bad with (especially if you obsessively read my old posts over and over): editing. I mentioned it earlier, but I don't typically take notes on what I want to write about at a game; I mostly go off of memory. However, there are times when I either think I need to clarify something better and/or forget a detail after initially publishing a post (for example, the original version of my Westchester Knicks post did not have any mention of the NBA G League's experimental rules, which I felt was important to include). The way this blog is set up makes those edits a bit more difficult to post, so more often than not, any sneak edits are usually made when a new post goes up (unless they're CRITICALLY important).

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And that's how things work around here. Hopefully that was interesting to read,

I don't know if I intend to branch out like this more on this blog, but I feel like it might be a good way to make this blog a bit "fuller", so to speak.

(Also, fun fact: I'm writing this BEFORE the NFL's "Big Game at the End of the Season since they trademarked the actual name of it", so I don't know the outcome of the game and am choosing NOT to edit it in. I also didn't really watch, as I typically DON'T 'cause I find it kinda stressful - and since the Patriots are in it this year...)